Sylvester Stallone Says ‘Creed II’ Is Probably His Last Time Playing Rocky

So I’m not going to spoil anything concrete in Creed II,but there is a vibe in the film that it might be Sylvester Stallone’s farewell to Rocky Balboa. It’s in the way he tells Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed that he won’t be around forever, and how the camera lingers on Rocky after the film’s final figh; it just gave me the feeling that this could be Stallone’s curtain call. I even asked Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. about that in our interview. He definitely suggested that Rocky and Adonis might be going their separate ways, but the vibe I got was that he was hinting that the two characters might split off into separate films from here on out.

The video Sylvester Stallone posted today to Instagram suggests otherwise. It has him essentially saying that he is done as Rocky. He calls the film “probably my last rodeo” and notes “my story has been told.” In the video’s caption he writes “sadly all things must pass ... and end.”

That doesn’t mean Creed is done though. Stallone seems very confident that it will continue without him. When he embraces Jordan at the end of the video he says “now you have to carry the mantle.” And then, in very Rocky-esque fashion, he raises his hands above his head in a victory pose.

All that said, Stallone has promised Rocky was done before. He originally claimed Rocky III would be the final film, back when he planned for Rocky to die at the end of his last boxing match. Then Rocky V was planned as a farewell. Then Rocky Balboa happened, with another curtain call. And then Michael B. Jordan showed up with Creed. So who knows; Rocky is all about going the distance. He could still have one more round in him.